This is a story that should never have been written, but one that needs to be told.

The end of this woeful tale comes first.

Former Park Forest police Officer Timothy Jones, who was shot in 2016, died Dec. 3, 2025. (Village of Park Forest)

On Dec. 27, services for Park Forest police Officer Tim Jones will be held in Tinley Park High School. The 2 p.m. service will take place after a police and fire salute involving hundreds of officers from the Chicago area.

Ceremony and sacrifice are often linked in a coin toss of life. It seems as if we fall through life, not knowing when, where and how the final dot next to our name will be placed. It is a quiet kind of common courage we share with each other.

Tim Jones had it when he and fellow officers investigated a break-in in March 2016 and was confronted by an aimless assailant with a violent temper. His last angry act in life before being slain by Jones’ fellow officers was firing two bullets into Jones: one to his head, another penetrating his jaw and lodging in his chest.

At that time, Tim Jones’ father, William Jones, was the Country Club Hills police chief and was told by former Park Forest police Chief Pete Green that his son was shot. It was William Jones who pinned the badge on his son when he was sworn into office less than a year before.

“I had to be the one to tell him,” Green said.

“Tim was shot,” Green told the William Jones, now a devastated father.

“Is he dead?” Jones asked.

“I don’t know,” Green replied.

Green drove Jones to St. James Hospital in Olympia Fields where Jones asked a doctor the same question and got the same answer. “I don’t know.”

Tim was air-lifted to the Level One trauma unit in Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. He was met there by doctors, nurses and more than 200 police officers of all ranks and from dozens of departments who lined the halls in a silent tribute to a fallen brother.

Doctors told William Jones there was no hope for any recovery. One said the odds of winning the Power Ball were better than of Tim living one more day.

Three days after the shooting, hundreds filed into St. Irenaeus Catholic Church in Park Forest. Most did not know the fallen officer but came to pray for his recovery. When police officers from various departments trooped in they were greeted by an emotional ovation.

People cried and people cared.

Some 1,000 people, including officers from more than a dozen departments, jammed into Culver’s restaurant in Matteson for a fundraiser for the family. At 6:30 that evening, the line stretched out the door and down Cicero Avenue. By 10 p.m., there were still people patiently waiting in line.

A blue T-shirt bearing Tim’s badge number, 204, and a plea to “Stay Strong” quickly sold out. We bought two.

I do not know if the prayer of thousands helped the work of the doctors, but two weeks after he was shot and after a series of operations, William Jones saw that his son’s eyes were following him as he moved around the room. It was a knowing response.

“We knew we had our miracle,” William Jones said.

The grim black dot next to Tim Jones’ name was replaced with an exclamation point.

Tim Jones was alive.

In those nearly 10 years between then and now, Tim Jones was not forgotten. He was made a detective with his own desk and locker, had his badge number painted on a police car and had a street sign with his name on it affixed to a pole adjacent to the police station.

Although bereft of the thousand trivial things in life that link us to each other, Tim Jones became a beacon of hope for nearly 10 years until his death Dec. 3.

I know that many who will attend the funeral or who will pause in what they are doing on Dec. 27, will wear that blue shirt next to their heart.

I know I will.

Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/15/column-funeral-park-forest-officer-tim-jones/